Abstract [en]

Pharmaceuticals in the environment are raising concern and since our municipal wastewater treatment plants normally don’t remove pharmaceuticals or resistant bacteria, it could be of interest to study the emissions from potential point sources. In general, households contribute with the greatest amount of pharmaceuticals to the municipal wastewater, but in some regions hospitals are a major point source of for example antibiotics.

One of Sweden’s largest hospitals, Akademiska sjukhuset, wants to reduce the amount of pharmaceuticals and resistant bacteria in their waste water, but the treatment process can be long, complicated and may require large areas. Cleaning of source-separated urine can be a more sustainable and efficient solution, since most of the pharmaceuticals are excreted via urine.

The aim of the study was to find out which one of the treatment methods; ozonation, biochar treatment and enzymatic treatment that are most suitable for reducing antibiotics from source separated urine. Ozonation was carried out at IVL, Stockholm, with a small-scale ozone generator, and biochar experiment and enzyme treatment was tested through batch tests and column test at Uppsala University.

The small-scale treatment experiments revealed that biochar treatment was the most promising method for reducing antibiotics in urine. The treatment methods ozonation and enzymatic treatment showed low reduction in this study, but may work better with some sort of pre-treatment.

To be able to develop a cleaning process with biochar (e.g. a filter system or a tank system), further studies on adsorption capacity, EBCT and breakthrough curves most be carried out.